Aaron Hoos

In 8 days*, the 2010 Winter Olympic athletes will compete to be the best in the world. Entrepreneurs compete for a similar pinnacle of success every single day. This series of blogs will countdown to the Olympics with 31 ideas about what it takes to achieve gold in your business.

To be an Olympic-level entrepreneur, you need to be willing to go where you need to go.

Athletes go to the Olympics, the Olympics don’t go to the athletes. Today, we can conveniently fly to whatever exotic (or non-exotic) locale the Games have to be in. But in ancient times it required a long journey to get there. Regardless of how near or far the Olympics are, one thing is true: If you don’t show up, you can’t compete.

Likewise, today’s Olympic-level entrepreneurs can work from the comfort of their home but need to be willing to go elsewhere – perhaps to work with clients or to speak or attend networking events. I’ll be honest, this one is a sticking point for me. I live in a great house in a great city and I like hanging around with my wife. I’m focused and creative in my office. I don’t write as well when I’m on the road. As a result, my not going is one factor that holds me back.

Yeah, I don’t like holding up the mirror and making that honest realization about myself. I Know it’s a “must do” for other entrepreneurs… and for me as well. The networking that comes out of trade shows, conferences, and other industry events can build your business and your position in the industry. There will come a time when I need to suck it up and make the journey myself.

* Disclosure: I was traveling recently and didn’t always have access to the internet, so I missed a couple of publishing dates. This blog has been published and back-dated to keep the countdown sequential.

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What would you do if you had to start all over again? What if some disaster suddenly strikes and your small business crumbles down around you. What would you do? Have you thought about it?

Here’s what I would do if someone suddenly hit the reset button on my business. You might say that this is a freelancer’s business plan (although some of it was actually put into practice in the order listed below and some of it was retroactively added as something I wish I’d done but I either learned the hard way or the technology wasn’t available).

1. I would select a target audience that I wanted to reach. It would need to be an audience that I could communicate with effectively and it would need to be a group that I could serve with some kind of deliverable. I don’t need to have a deliverable yet, just some knowledge of the market.
2. I would start a blog. Even if I wasn’t going to be selling anything for six months or more, I’d start a blog. I’d write every single day and fill my blog with useful content.
3. I would start a Twitter account and begin tweeting: Retweeting related content, engaging my followers, and actively following people in my industry.
4. I would write articles and submit them online. Every single day for six months, maybe longer.
5. I would join LinkedIn and start connecting with people: Joining groups, writing recommendations, answering questions.
6. I would join Guru and/or Elance (assuming my deliverable was a service) and start bidding. Every single day; as many as 5-10 projects per day (scaling down as the work started to come in).

That’s it. It’s pretty simple but it works. The keys here are focus and persistence. If you’re starting your business, adopt these as your business plan.

If you’ve been in business for a while, revisit your business plan and ask yourself what you would do if you had to start all over again. Chances are, many of the other things that you’re doing now are less important and potentially not delivering as great of a return.